An Unknown Hero
By: Karine
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I own anything, except THIS Peter, JKR can keep her Bastard!Peter, but I'm in love with mine thank you very much!
Summary: [AU] How far is someone willing to go to bring peace back into the Wizarding world? And, at what price?
As I walk on the ruins where once stood Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I wonder how things went to hell this fast. Here I am, the last of the marauders, standing on the site of the last battle that determined the outcome of the war. Oh the irony. The weakest of the four marauders surviving the war, while the three other died gruesomely.
One might ask why I'd call myself weak after having survived; the answer is simple really. I did not fight. Well, I did, but not like James, Sirius and Remus. They fought like hell, for everything they stood for, for principle, because it was the only good thing to do in a war that was destroying everything around us. I only fought to defend myself, and never did I really go after any death eaters.
The last time I encountered them, I fled and came here. It's been two days now, and I'm scared. I don't know what I'm going to do if they come after me again; I'm not strong enough to fend them off a second time. Besides, I don't see the point in trying to survive in a world where Voldemort has free reign. There are of course, some who are gathering together to fight against Him and his forces, but it's too little too late. The destruction of the Ministry, then Hogwarts a week later, sealed the fate of England.
I know it may sound preposterous, but things would have been different –and better- if the other marauders hadn't died.
Remus was the first to go. Voldemort stupidly thought that he would join him because every dark creature does; Remus thought that one could say no to the Dark Lord. We found his body first, a silver dagger to his heart, and then James received his head with the mail.
This may sound heartless, but that was the best thing that happened in the war. Not the action itself, but the consequences it brought down. Because both Sirius and James, the most talented aurors that the ministry had, did not grieve. Instead, something inside of them snapped, and they became unstoppable. Together, they fought against Voldemort's forces with a burning passion, catching countless death eaters. Most of them were brought to Azkaban, up to the point where it threatened to burst, but sometimes there wasn't anything left of the dark wizard to send to the wizarding prison.
And then it happened.
Voldemort found a way to break the Fidelius charm using old magic. He didn't attack Godric Hollow outright; instead he sneaked in the house and coldly killed the three year old Harry. But the boy didn't go down quietly though. It seems that when Voldemort tried the Killing Curse on him, Harry was somehow immune to it. The spell woke young Harry up, along with James and Lily who got to watch as their son was blasted into pieces.
That was the moment that sealed our world's fate. After Harry's murder, James and Sirius completely lost their ability to think rationally. Barely an hour after the incident, they left on a suicide vengeance mission. Some of us tried to reason with them, I still have the bruises from when Sirius shoved me rather forcefully on a wall, but nothing Lily or I said could keep them from going. They died of course; it was foolishness to walk up to Voldemort like that. They took a lot of bastards down with them, leaving a large gap in Voldemort's army. But, with them dead, the Dark Lord knew he was now one step ahead of victory; as did we.
The Ministry fell only a few days after their deaths, leaving a clear path to Hogwarts, and defeat.
Lost in my own thoughts, I suddenly stumbled. Unable to regain my footsteps on the uneven ground, I promptly fell flat on my face. I'm about to curse my clumsiness when something bright and gold caught my eyes. I stared at the object before me for a full minute before carefully picking it up.
I recognized what it is immediately of course, because there is nothing else that you could mistake for a Time Turner.
I stared at it for some time, my eyes as round as Galleons, and then it finally hit me. The possibilities of what I could do with this innocent looking pendant are endless.
But, with it comes a choice. If I am to go back in time, when should it be? I can't change what happened to Remus, because I don't even know exactly when and how it happened, none of us knew. I can't prevent Voldemort from killing Harry, because I'm risking of having James and Lily join him in the afterlife at the same time. Even if I prevented James and Sirius from going after Voldemort after Harry's murder, they'd still kill themselves at work. Both of them were already supporting injuries that they simply never left to heal.
I'm sitting here, thinking about what to do with this gift from fate, when it hit me. Maybe, if I prevent Voldemort from even searching at how to break the Fidelius charm, then it would buy us time. But how can I do that without betraying them? That's it! If I betray James and Lily a few days after I'm made the Secret Keeper, then surely He'll attack them instead of sneaking up in the house. I could even send him information before it happens, about how James and Lily are dangerous to him, and then he'd be sure to attack them. Surely, if Voldemort attacks the house, then one of them will have time to escape with Harry. Then, with Harry alive, we'll stand a chance against Voldemort.
I get up, getting ready to turn back in time when realization hits me. I'll have to live the rest of my life as a traitor. I ponder that for a while, then shrug to myself. It's the small price to pay for freedom I guess.
With a new resolution, I'm about to turn the Time Turner when I hear my name. I recognize the person making its way to me immediately, her signature red hair unmistakable.
"Hello Lily," I say softy.
She looks at me then at the Time Turner I'm holding, then back at me.
"Fix it," She says, her voice barely above a whisper.
I nod, not trusting my voice.
"Will he live Peter, will my baby live?" She asks, her voice breaking.
"He will, but you and James might not. I'll have to betray you. "
"Do it."
And I did.
YOU-KNOW-YOU DEFEATED!
October 31st 1981, the day that will be known throughout the world as the day where He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was defeated at the hands of one year old Harry Potter.
Yesterday, at approximately 20:30, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named walked up to Godric Hollow, the residence of the famous auror James Potter, his wife Lily, and their young son Harry, with the intent to wipe out the small family. He quickly disposed of the two adults, but as he tried to do the same to their child, the Killing Curse rebounded off of him, and turned on its caster, killing Him.
Ministry officials were perplexed as to how that could have happened in the first place, since the habitant of the house was known to be under the Fidelius Charm with Sirius Black, famous auror and best friend of James Potter, as the Secret Keeper.
Aurors arrived at the scene just as Black was taking young Harry out of the ruins that was now his house. He would undoubtedly had been arrested, if Peter Pettigrew, another childhood friend of Potter and Black, hadn't arrived to declare that he was in fact the real Secret Keeper and that he was the one that had betrayed the Potters. The aurors immediately arrested him, after half heartedly stopping Sirius Black from killing him, and brought him to the Ministry. Sirius Black left immediately after that, taking young Harry with him, to an unknown destination.
Now, every wizard in Britain owns their freedom to Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived!
Sirius was currently in the office of the Headmaster of Hogwarts, glaring at the old wizard with all that he could muster.
"Let's see if I understand you correctly headmaster. You want to send my godson to Lily's muggle sister whom, might I add, hated Lily and everything that had to do with our world. And I guess I'm supposed to just sit back and let you do it?" Sirius hissed.
"Now Sirius, you must understand that…"
"NO, it's YOU who have to understand Albus. Harry is not going anywhere, he's staying with ME." Sirius shouted, making Harry jump and begin to whimper.
A few soothing words and a hug later, Harry was smiling again.
Albus Dumbledore could perfectly see that Harry would be well with his godfather, but the protection he'd have if he had been at his aunt and uncle's…
"All right Sirius, I'll let you keep Harry,"
Sirius snorted and muttered something that sounded like "as if you had any other choice", but Dumbledore couldn't be sure.
"But you'll have to be extremely careful. You'll go into hiding, leave your career as an auror to care for him. There are a lot of death eaters still abroad, and they could try to avenge their master…"
"I'd like to see them try," Sirius hissed, a dangerous edge to his voice.
"Sirius, I know you can protect the boy, but can you raise him? Can you honestly tell me that you'll be able to look after a child, when you yourself are looking dead on your feet?" Albus said calmly.
Sirius sent the old wizard a withering glare, and said,
"I'd do anything for him; James and Lily," His voice broke slightly when he mentioned them, but he quickly regained control of himself, "made it my responsibility to watch after Harry when they named me his godfather. I was to be his guardian, if something ever happened to them, ME, not Petunia, not you, not anyone else, ME, and I...will...not...fail...them."
The headmaster nodded and motioned to Sirius that he could take his leave. The younger wizard didn't lose a second, and within a minute he was leaving, with Harry safely cuddled in his arms.
Back in his holding cell, Peter Pettigrew smiled. He had done it. The world was free of Voldemort's clutches. He didn't care that he was sure to get a life long sentence in Azkaban, if that was the price for the world's freedom, then he'd gladly pay it.
Fin
A/N: Right, see the button below, it's to tell me how messed up one must be to have thought up of this :D